With extreme squalls and waves, the hurricane “Ciaran” hit the northwest of France and the southwest of England during the night before the autumn storm hit the Netherlands and Germany.
At least seven people were killed and several were injured, authorities said. In front of her family, a woman from Bavaria was killed by a falling tree in the Harz Mountains.
13,500 firefighters deployed in France
In France there were two dead and 15 injured, including seven firefighters, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced. A truck driver died when he crashed into a fallen tree. In Le Havre, a man was hit by a gust of wind while closing his shutters and was fatally injured. Around 1.2 million households were without electricity and hundreds of thousands were cut off from mobile communications. Fallen trees blocked roads and railway lines. There was significant property damage. 13,500 firefighters responded to around 3,500 missions. More than 1,300 people were brought to safety.
Gusts of wind locally reached speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour. A 21-meter-high storm wave was measured off the Finistère department in Brittany – the westernmost continental tip of France.
Hundreds of schools in England remained closed
The storm also caused problems on the south coast of England. Thousands of households were temporarily without electricity, the PA news agency reported. Trees fell down and roads were blocked. Hundreds of schools remained closed. Train operators in the Greater London area called on people to only undertake essential journeys.
According to police, wind speeds of up to 164 kilometers per hour were measured on the island of Jersey in the southwestern English Channel. “Please stay indoors. It is very dangerous out there,” warned Jersey Police. A woman told PA of large hailstones: “The hailstones were heavier and larger than a golf ball and damaged three of our windows.”
The hurricane caused two deaths in Belgium. In a park in Ghent, a tree fell on two pedestrians, one of whom was killed. In another park with a playground, a five-year-old was killed by a heavy, falling branch, the newspaper “De Standaard” reported. In Antwerp, a man was seriously injured by a falling roof structure.
In the Netherlands, a person was killed by a falling tree in Venray near the border with the Lower Rhine, police said. Falling trees injured people in several other places, including a woman in The Hague. Cyclists were also hit by falling branches and trees. Hundreds of flights were canceled due to the storm with wind gusts of up to 110 kilometers per hour. The trains to and from Paris didn’t run either. Shipping was also severely affected.
Storm warning for the North Sea coast
The German Weather Service issued a storm warning for parts of the North Sea coast and a strong wind warning for parts of the Baltic Sea coast. In Germany, the low known internationally as “Ciaran” is called “Emir”.
On Rammelsberg in Lower Saxony, a mountain more than 600 meters high on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, a 46-year-old from Bavaria died when she was hit by a falling tree. The fire department in Goslar said the storm in the Harz was much stronger than initially expected. In North Rhine-Westphalia, trees that had fallen due to the storm were already hindering train traffic on Thursday morning. The regions of Euskirchen, Remscheid, Mönchengladbach/Viersen and Dorsten were affected.
The hurricane depression also hit parts of the Iberian Peninsula, claiming one life. A young woman was killed by a falling tree in Madrid, emergency services said. Three other people were slightly injured. “Ciaran” particularly affected the north of Portugal and the north and center of Spain. There was heavy rain and wind gusts reaching speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, causing disruption to rail and air traffic. In Madrid, the Retiro city park, which is also popular with tourists, was closed for safety reasons. In the Balearic Islands, with the holiday island of Mallorca, which is particularly popular with Germans, the orange alert primarily warned of high waves.
